Which meant she dangled six inches off the ground, pressed flat against what had to be military armor. Surely no human torso could be that hard all over. She purely didn’t appreciate the position.
Did the jerk think he’d saved her from a fall? No one was that delusional. But on the off chance he was, she didn’t break her knuckles again but raised the operatic scale. Another car alarm went off. And because she didn’t like dangling, she aimed a knee at his groin.
Releasing her waist with one arm, he grabbed the back of her halter top, and picked her off him like an insect, jerking her far enough away to mess up her aim. She nearly broke her kneecap slamming it into his hip bone just as the sheriff’s siren pulled up out front.
Her scream and the siren cut off at the same time. The silence was telling.
With satisfaction, Evie dug her thumbs into the pulse points of his elbows. “Hurry, Sheriff!” she yelled. That cry usually sent most bullies fleeing.
The Magician didn’t even attempt to escape. Lowering her to the ground, he twisted his arms to grasp hers and nearly crushed the bones of her wrist.
“Yeah, hurry, Sheriff,” he called laconically as the yard filled with people. “I want to press charges of assault and battery.”
Sheriff Troy had his hands on his gun belt as he skirted the gardenia, but one look at Evie trapped by the Magician’s fists, and he dropped his aggressive posture. “We’ve been wanting to hogtie her for decades. Never saw anyone actually do it, though.”
“He’s trespassing,” Evie protested. “And if this isn’t assault, what is? Look at him! He’s a stone-cold killer with blood on his pants.”
If she was really lucky, Troy would lock him up until she smuggled Loretta out of town. That hadn’t been her original intention, but she wasn’t letting a little kid anywhere near a man who would crush her like a bug. She’d taken down the biggest man in town with ease. This guy was superhero material—except for the lawyer/killer thing. Super-villain, then—if she believed Loretta.Thatwas a problem.
The impassive stranger released his grip and stepped back. Evie rubbed circulation into her wrists and glared at him. Just because he was twice her breadth didn’t mean he could intimidate her.
She made a career of tacklingghosts, for pity’s sake. Dealing with unpredictable poltergeists registered high on her scare’o’meter.
He looked down at her as if she were a poodle climbing his leg. Evie kicked his shin.
Finally, he winced.
“I could probably charge him with terrorism for looking like that,” the sheriff obliged, obviously enjoying her predicament. “But he’s got a point. You just assaulted him.”
“I’m protecting my property.”
“I’m not damaging your property. I was defending myself,” the Magician retorted, losing a little of his aloof façade, she noticed with satisfaction. Color flushed beneath the bronzed skin over his square cheekbones, and the grim set of his mouth brought out the dimple in his square cleft chin. Square all over, he was. Not quite six feet but broad everywhere—and muscled.
“He’s trying to kill my cousin.” Evie knew that was a rash accusation, but she needed to see what he was made of before she decided whether or not to believe him or Loretta.
“If by your cousin, you mean Loretta Post,” GI Joe growled, “then she’s a runaway, and I’m trying to return her to school.”
Evie didn’t possess a temper. She had enough flaws and didn’t need another. Instead, when she got mad, she got incredibly focused. Unfortunately, that kind of furious concentration meant her conscious mind often checked out and her subconscious took over.
Which it did now. Her inner eye opened. A cold blue-red in his third chakra with a gray overlay had her shivering. Red flares ofluststaggered her backward.
Evie swayed as her senses switched gears from expected violence to his suppressed passion.
The gorilla caught her before she toppled and plunked her down on the stairs as if she were a vaporous nitwit. “Bring her some water!” he shouted, apparently accustomed to giving orders.
Shaken back from her trance, puzzled by what she’d seen, Evie dismissed his he-man tactics in favor of studying what she’d sensed. No shadow indicated lies or danger—except from his fury. Or his lust. What the devil was this man?
“Scorpio,” she finally muttered in disgust. “Intense.”
As usual, a crowd had gathered. Now that the law had arrived, her neighbors felt safe enough to lean out their windows. At least, she wasn’t in any danger of being murdered in front of an audience.
“Evie takes spells like that,” Sheriff Troy explained to the frowning stranger. “She gets weird expressions, then goes kinda limp. She sometimes says crazy things, but so far, she hasn’t hurt nothin’ but people’s feelings.”
“Has she seen a doctor?” the Magician growled without a hint of sympathy.
Troy hitched the belt up over his paunchy belly and grinned. “Doc says she needs a healthy dose of Ritalin. Now, are you pressing charges or not? I gotta say, you being a stranger here and all, the judge ain’t likely to do you any favors.”
“That’s cause the judge is my son and he’s sweet on her mama,” Mrs. Satterwhite called from her bedroom window next door.